Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes a while back but haven't had time to post them until now! There are only 2 days of school left then no more work until next school year! Expect some more posts of delicious baked goods over the summer!


I had been dreaming about peanut butter cupcakes and finally got around to making them! I love peanut butter and chocolate but I do not like chocolate cake. Almost every peanut butter cup cupcake that I have ever seen has chocolate cake and peanut butter icing. So I decided to take matters into my own hands!

Unfortunately I didn't make up my own recipe for the cupcakes. I used this recipe from All Recipes only I think I added a little more peanut butter and I used evaporated milk because I never have milk on hand. Keep an eye out though because I am making a peanut butter cake later this week and plan on changing it up a little so maybe you will see an original Peanut Butter Cake Recipe soon!

So after baking the cupcakes I cored the middle and filled with chocolate ganache. Honestly I can't remember what I did for it some proportion of good quality chocolate and milk or cream and maybe butter depending on the mood I was in when I made them. This is why I should update my blog right after I make something instead of months later. The important part is that I filled a condiment squirt bottle with the ganache and filled the cored out centers with ganache.


Then came the hard decision. Chocolate icing would make the most sense but I couldn't deny the fabulousness of peanut butter icing. So I decided I didn't need to pick and would swirl them together.

I essentially used this recipe from All Recipes for the peanut butter icing but I do remember adding more sugar and PB until I got a good consistency. But I didn't measure it so I have no idea how much! And for the chocolate I used the chocolate buttercream on the back of the Hershey Coco powder box.Then I used a spatula and put the chocolate on one side of the bag and the peanut butter on the other. I thoroughly researched this on lots of other blogs and websites to figure out how best to do the swirl. Basically just scrape one of the icings along one side of the bag and the other icing along the other side. Then make sure you squeeze evenly on both sides so that you get equal amounts of both icings.

They turned out so cute! Almost too cute to eat but not quite!

Back from the Dead!

So I know it has been a long long time!! I got a job, moved into an awesome apartment, got a cat, and have been crazy busy! And although I know I won't be able to blog all the time like I was doing before I am going to try and post when I make something super awesome. Like today,

Say hello to the awesomeness of Vanilla Chai Cupcakes with a Honey Chai Buttercream. I needed to make cupcakes for our staff meeting on Monday but really didn't feel like going to the store. I came across a couple chai cupcake recipes and came up with my own version. I think a cream cheese icing would be really good on these too- kind of like a kicked up spice cake! I just didn't have any cream cheese and was really not going to the store! I made mini cupcakes because I needed more and didn't have enough butter to double the recipe! These are really moist and yummy and taste just like chai. Don't skip infusing the chai with the milk because that is really what kicks them up a notch.

Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

1/2 cup milk
2 vanilla chai tea bags
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour (I used a mix of cake flour and all purpose just because I had both)
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar


1. Put the milk and tea bags in a saucepan and bring to a boil. (Note: If you have a gas stove don't dangle the string with the tag over the side of the pan. That is a great way to catch the tag on fire. After one teeny tiny fire and a new pot of milk and tea bags I decided to take the string and tag off!)
2. After it comes to a boil turn off the stove and let the tea seep for a bit in the milk while you start on the cupcakes.
3. Cream the butter until its nice and fluffy.
4. Add in the sugar and mix it for a bit until its fluffy
5. Add the vanilla and then the eggs one at a time.
6. Sift together the flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg into a separate bowl. (Note: You could also add in some cardamon but I just didn't have any to put in)
7. Alternately add a bit of the flour mixture and the chai infused milk to the creamed sugar and butter mix
8. Taste and adjust the spices if you want!
9. Combine the vinegar and baking soda in a separate bowl and once its all done fizzing add it into the mix
10. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes (This is for mini cupcakes- if you want normal sized cupcakes they might need to bake a little longer)

Honey Chai Buttercream

3 tbls butter
1/3 cup shortening (You could use 1 stick of butter but I only had 3 tbls of butter left so I improvised)
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbls milk
3 tbls honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger

1. Cream the butter and shortening together
2. Add in everything else and mix for a while until it gets really smooth and fluffy

If I had thought enough ahead I would probably have done 3/4 cup of milk with 3 tea bags when I did the cupcakes and saved the rest to add into the icing. But I didn't think ahead and I didn't feel like taking the extra work for only a few tablespoons of milk. But I am sure that it would have been even better if I had done that.

Graduation Festivities Begin

Sorry again for the lack of updating! Starting last night was the beginning of a week of graduation festivities for my little sister! Last night was the baccalaureate service, but before we get to that. Wednesday night we had a wonderful dinner. It was suppose to be a pork tenderloin in the crockpot with bbq sauce. However it was so tender that when we tried to cut it, it just shredded apart. So instead we made bbq sandwiches sans the sandwich part! I like it better that way anyways! It was really good, I have no idea what kind of bbq sauce my mom used but it was really good, tangy not smokey- just the way I like it (but usually not the way my parents like it, so I was surprised). On the side were some leftover zucchini and mushrooms.
Yesterday morning I woke up and had a green smoothie for breakfast. This combo was vanilla yogurt, 2 cups spinach, strawberry fruit popsicle, and a handful of mini strawberries. It was really good, I was worried because we were out of bananas and fruit yogurt and the strawberries we had were really not good but the strawberry popsicle makes all the difference!
Then for a quick lunch I had some leftover Moroccan Cous Cous
with a side of this awesome garlic and herb cheddar cheese. Holy cow this is seriously some of the best cheese ever! It is so good!
Then I had plans of making cookie dough cupcakes for after my sister's baccalaureate. I mixed up the cookie dough and rolled up half of it into balls and then was going to make cookies with the other half. However our drawer that holds the cookie sheets has been stuck for about a week. Luckily my dad was working at home and I told him that if he wants cookies he has to get the drawer open. We couldn't see what was stuck so we stuck my camera in the drawer and took a picture and found thisHahahah, my dad somehow got it open and the circle pan was very bent but at least we go the drawer open! So I was able to make these mini chocolate chip cookies- from the recipe on the back of the Toll House chocolate chip bag. This is my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, it never fails.
After my cookie dough balls froze I made some cupcakes. I used this Four Egg Yellow Cake Recipe. The cake itself was really good! I highly recommend this recipe, however the balls were so ginormous that to get any cake in there I had to overfill the cupcake tins, so they kind of overflowed while baking. And I topped them with purple buttercream because my sister's school colors are purple and black. The buttercream was one box of powdered sugar, 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup shortening, splash of vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of milk. And I also made some chocolate graduation hats to top the cupcakes with. They were so cute! Oh and I almost forgot, I was piping the frosting on and my tip totally just fell out, so I just piped the rest of them through the hole cut in the bottom of the bag, thats why they look kind of ghetto!
For dinner my mom made some tilapia topped with a parmesan herb mixture. I was still busy frosting cupcakes and cleaning the kitchen so I ate mine straight up off the pan.
Then we went to my sister's baccalaureate.
After my sister's baccalaureate service we came home for cupcakes!
She loved the little chocolate graduation hats!
And here is a picture of the inside with the cookie dough filling. It didn't really work as well as I was hoping for. I think if I made these again, which I probably won't, then I would definitely make much smaller cookie dough balls and freeze them overnight. The recipe's that I found online said freeze them for about 2 hours, but that was definitely not enough time.
Now I'm off to go find something for lunch. I hope everyone has a great day!

Lime and Strawberry Frosted Cupcakes

Wegman's was fabulous as always! While I waited for my sister to be ready I snacked on some cheddar that I picked up at Giant the other day. It was really really good, super sharp! Its not the same as the goat cheddar which they definitely don't have at Giant but I will definitely be getting more of this cheese.
For lunch I loaded up on the hot food bar! I got some shrimp pad thai, spring roll, some indian lamb thing that was delicious, shrimp in a cream sauce, calamari, and a chinese donut to finish it off. It was all really delicious, as expected! The shrimp in the cream sauce is probably one of my favorite things on the Wegmans hot bar, the shrimp is fried and kind of crispy but then its in this sweet sauce that it kind of soaks up and softens it. So it has a fun texture and it really isn't in a "sauce"

After we ate we did some intense grocery shopping where I got lots of things I wanted (some ingredients for meals and cupcakes) and was disappointed when Wegman's didn't have other things I wanted (chia seeds, So Delicious coconut milk ice cream bars, organic dried pineapple without the crazy preservatives). After unloading the groceries I made myself a Green Monster to drink while cupcake making in hopes of not eating as much batter and frosting. This delicious Green Monser contained about
1/4 cup orange juice
1 container Light and Fit Strawberry Yogurt (I find the thin non greek yogurt works better for these so I use whatever kind my mom has because I usually just buy and eat greek yogurt)
1 banana
1 1/2 cups spinach
I really love the addition of the orange juice to my Green Monster's! I also have been blending them with ice sometimes so they are colder and more smoothieesque. Today I had the wonderful idea of using one of the Minute Maid Juice bars instead of ice and orange juice, which would have been delicious if there were any orange ones left in the box. There were only grape which I really don't like by themselves that much and I think would ruin my Green Monster!

Anyways the Green Monster didn't really help the finger from tasting all the different stages for the cupcakes. The cupcake inspiration came from the Food Network's Strawberry-Lime Stuffed Cupcakes. I used their cupcake recipe as a base. However I didn't really pay that much attention to the recipe which called for jumbo cupcake tins and put my normal cupcake tins in for the specified time. When I checked on them 5 min before the timer was set to go off they were a little done. They were not burned but they were definitely a little over cooked. Once they were cooled off I cut little holes in the tops and stuffed some of the fresh tiny strawberries we got in Ohio. They were the perfect size to stuff into these cupcakes because normal sized strawberries from the grocery store would have been too big, I guess that is why the recipe calls for jumbo cupcakes!
Now I would have been perfectly happy with just the lime frosting on all the cupcakes, however my mom and sister do not like lime anything. So to make them happy I made strawberry frosting for half of them. Which by the way this made exactly one dozen normal sized cupcakes so I frosted 6 with strawberry frosting and 6 with lime. Both frostings started out the same way and then I kept adding a little more of everything to get it right, so I can't give you an exact recipe but i can try!

Strawberry Buttercream
(all measurements are very generalized)
3/4 pound of powdered sugar (one box is usually a pound so 3/4 of the box)
1/4 cup of strawberry puree
3 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of shortening

Blend everything together adding more powdered sugar to make thicker or a splash of milk or strawberry puree to thin it.
Lime Buttercream
2/3 pound of powdered sugar
3 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of shortening
zest of one lime
juice of one lime
1 teaspoon of milk

Blend everything together adding more powdered sugar to thicken or more milk to thin.
Mid cupcake making I had to stop and peel up some potatoes to start cooking for dinner. We had a roast in the crockpot cooking with about half an onion and probably close to a tablespoon of minced garlic. It turned out really good and we had it along side some mashed potatoes (also with garlic of course) and cauliflower. It was delicious of course!
Then of course for dessert we had cupcakes.
We rented New In Town and just finished watching it. That movie was super cute and is definitely on my need to own movie list. Right up there with all 3 High School Musicals which I somehow do not own, probably because I always would watch them at Maggie's! (Who by the way still has my High School Musical Sing It at her house in Richmond!) The movie also made me want to move to Minnesota. I love snow and would not mind living in the cold and it just seemed like such a cute small town! Although I really don't know about Minnesota because I would probably get bored out of my mind, I would love to live in a Gilmore Girls Stars Hollow esque small town somewhere in New England. A town where everyone knows everyone and has fun things like Fall and Winter Carnivals at the town square. Someday I will live somewhere like that! I am curious to know what kind of dream location everyone else has. Do you want to live in a small town like Stars Hollow or are you more of a city kind of person. And of course you can't forget the suburbs or the country!

Baking Extravaganza

Oh my what a busy day!!!!!!!!!!! I was cooking almost all day! yay! First I woke up and had a little bit of Fage with some honey and granola. Then on the side I had a slice of the Pepperidge Farm Cranberry Orange Bread with some of that Barney Butter. I wasn't that impressed with the Barney Butter, I like the 365 from Whole Foods better- not only because its the chunky kind but it also has a little different taste too.
Then I started cleaning my room and putting away a lot of the stuff I brought home! For lunch I had a yummy sandwich- porccioto, munster, sprouts, tomatoes, lettuce, dill mayo, and sourdough bread!

Then Rachel came over and we had a baking extravaganza! I got the almond butter out and Rachel wanted to try a spoonfull (not the Barney butter but also not the 365 it was some other kind from Harris Teeter but it was chunky!!)
Then we baked and baked and baked! We baked Guniess Chocolate Cupcakes (that later got a Bailey's frosting)
We baked funfetti cupcakes from a box lol and then eventually decorated them all Easterly!
We baked carrot cake cookies and made a pineapple cream cheese filling.
And we baked maple almond butter cookies!
So here are the Carrot Cake Cookies with Pineapple Cream Cheese Filling from Cookie Madness


Those were for sure my favorite of everything we made! Oh my gosh they were sooooooo good!!!!

Then we decorated our easter cupcakes! They got green frosting, green cocounut, pink peeps, and jelly beans!
yay! I look ridiculous because I thought she had already taken the picture hahah!

Then we frosted our Guiness Chocolate Cupcakes with a Bailey's frosting- it was like a stick of butter, a box of powdered sugar, and a little mini Bailey's bottle. Rachel brought the recipe so I'm not sure where it came from but maybe she can comment with the link!
I just realized I don't have a picture of the Maple Almond Butter Cookies. They are pretty good the first ones I overcooked but the second batch turned out a lot better! The recipe is from Jenna's Blogger E-Cookbook, I'm sure you could still donate the $10 and get it if you wanted!

Then as soon as we finished baking I started dinner! I made Orange Beef Stirfry- I made the beef kind of from this recipe from Allrecipes. Then I also made some more of the sauce and made a lot of veggies in it too- broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, green peppers, and snow peas! Oh my gosh this was soooo good! I love the orange sauce and everything but especially the mushrooms absorbed the sauce and tasted sooooo good!

Yummm! So now I have to run so I can play Hoopla with my family!!!!